“every night, i listen to stand up comedy in my earbuds. observational, deadpan, satirical. political. floating through my brain as i sleep. punch lines with an audience’s laughter. I'm not a comedian but, i know what it’s like to have a craft. to do the work and hopefully be lucky enough to have someone who wants it. or needs it. which is why every morning, i wake up, and i try again and again and again, and again and again …”
the vocal audio heard with the visual of fidgeting hands is Michael Caine giving a lecture to a live audience on the nuances of film acting. Produced and broadcasted on BBC in 1987.
“yearning, at the very very early stages, was simply a color test. i was so tired of posting things and hating how the colors turned out. id compare my pieces to the Kodak film page and I'd see colors that blew me away. you can’t really tell me that big production budgets are a valid excuse for quality drop unfortunately. so i went out with one goal in mind. find color and helation. i was going here and there, just shooting what i came across. but of-course, my mind was subconsciously weaving itself through my “shoot as I go” shot list. and my emotions made way for a narrative structure that had to be completed with props and scene changes.”
“when putting the pieces together editing wise, I've realized and came to understand my cliches and “tells.” i find that i use the sky to start a lot of my work. it’s a “keelan burns edited this” give away. which isn’t a bad thing but I wanted to grow on this one. i decided to film a quick shot of me listening to music. still ended up cheating a little bit though with the sky being immediately after..”
the music that was used in yearning is by Jon Hopkins, called “The Wider Sun.”
“this visual in particular was framed this way with me being on that right two thirds grid line on purpose. I wanted to give the impression of a guardian angel looking over my shoulder. some kind of Devine presence even when I’m not aware of it. of course, it set itself up perfectly for a color pop as well. the color contrast with the white object behind a red shirt perched in front of a green backdrop. the rest will have to be up to you.”
